It's On The House
by MiladyGirl
Summary: We all know that people and their actions can be evil. But do evil PLACES exist outside of the horror movies? When JJ and Blake are sent to look through an unsub's house, they find themselves facing something much more sinister than any serial killer. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N**

I'm not sure if I'm going to continue this story, I'm not sure if it's going to work. It's supposed to be more of a ghost story than a crime story, (think Stephen King's 1408), and I was pretty confident with the idea when I started, but now I'm not so sure anymore. We'll see what happens with it and if you think it's worth working on, do tell me. I really don't want to sound like I'm holding the story hostage and only release it if I get enough reviews, because if the muse doesn't cooperate, no amount of comments will change that. But it's always easier to work through the brick wall of difficulties if you know someone wants to read the results. :D

(Also, I don't know why the hell they're in that damn house to begin with, story just started with this scene so I'm running with it…! LOL )

* * *

JJ carefully navigated around an unsteady pile of God-knew-what that reached almost all the way up to the ceiling. The unsub's abandoned house could have been featured in any of those TV shows about hoarders. There were things everywhere, it stank to high heaven and the air was thick with dust. Each step the agents took roused up even more dust to the point where it almost seemed like ground fog. Nope. They'd have to return with face masks, this was a health hazard. JJ caught up with Blake, who had almost disappeared into the dust-fog. The older woman had pulled her shirt sleeve down over her nose and mouth as a makeshift (and probably not very effective) air filter, and her entire body language revealed just how uncomfortable and revolted she was.

"Let's get out of here," JJ said, coughing and waving her hand in front of her face to clear the air in the hopes of getting more oxygen than dust into her lungs. Blake nodded and looked relieved.

"This place can't have been cleaned since Reagan was president," Blake said in a muffled voice and sneezed. "Ugh, I've got dust everywhere, it's _disgusting_ ," she complained and sneezed again.

JJ glanced at her colleague. It _was_ disgusting - the dust in here seemed to have an almost greasy quality somehow - but they had been visiting crime scenes so grisly that a slaughterhouse would seem like a pretty nice place in comparison, and Blake had never seemed uncomfortable or creeped out before.

Wait, that wasn't entire true. Once had JJ seen her shudder, and that was with the case of the unsub who brought maggots with him to the crime scene. Blake did not seem to do well with crawling insects, something JJ was about to witness beyond all doubt.

As they stepped over some old stacks of newspaper, Blake stumbled on something and lost her footing. She was forced to steady herself against the wall, what little of it that was free of junk. The wallpaper was old and crumbled and it peeled off from the impact of her weight. It bulged, and from beneath it, what looked like a wave of living darkness welled up.

It was silverfish.

Blake didn't shudder this time. She screamed - a scream so high-pitched it was probably only fully audible for animals - and nearly knocked JJ over in her rush to get out of there. JJ shone the flashlight at the hole in the wallpaper and noticed something sticking out from underneath it. She certainly didn't find crawling insects pleasant, but she wasn't afraid of them, and she brushed them off and took out the item. It would have been a different thing with spiders. Big ones. She could deal with the occasional spider if it wasn't too big, but ugh… at a certain point she felt sure the were large enough to view her as prey. Nasty creatures.

She looked at the square-shaped item she had pulled out. It was an envelope. The glue was long gone - eaten by the insects, probably - but it seemed to contain something. She looked closer at the wallpaper, but saw nothing else of interest, and so she decided to get out and check on her colleague.

* * *

She found Blake by an old apple tree in the garden, brushing her hands frantically over her clothes and hair while twitching all over. It was like watching her colleague performing some kind of bizarre rain dance, and JJ couldn't hold back a grin.

"Sorry I ran," Blake said breathlessly, without looking up. "I freakin' _hate_ silverfish."

"You do? _Really_? Could have fooled me," JJ teased. Blake stopped twitching and glared at her. JJ relented. "Sorry."

"I can deal with serial killers. But I can't handle creepy, crawling insects." She shuddered and made a disgusted face. "Can you check my hair? It feels like I've got something crawling in it."

JJ dutifully obeyed. "Nothing. You're fine. Look what I found under the wallpaper."

Blake glanced at the envelope, but she made no move to take it.

"Gloves or no gloves, I'm not touching anything that might have more creepy crawlies in it."

JJ shook her head, smiling a little, as she very carefully opened it to reveal a faded piece of paper. It was folded over and when she unfolded it, what it showed was a bloody handprint. JJ's eyes widened. This unsub had dipped his victim's hands into their own blood and made handprints somewhere on each crime scene. Given that the handprints and blood both belonged to the victim, it hadn't helped in identifying the killer, and by the time they had found who he was, he was long gone. This print was small enough to be that of a teenage girl or a petite adult woman.

Blake looked at it and her lips pressed together. She said nothing.

JJ put the items in a plastic evidence bag and sought Blake's eyes. The brunette refused to look back; her eyes were fixated at the house. Eventually JJ too turned to look at it. There seemed to be something gloomy, almost sinister about it, even in the bright sunshine. Neither of them wanted to say it out loud - they were both very practical women who did not believe in ghosts - but this house felt haunted.

"We need to look through everything in that house," JJ said. "We might find something that explains this. There must have been more victims that we don't know about yet."

"I'm not going back in there without a damn Hazmat suit," Blake muttered, but the words came automatically. She was barely listening to them herself.

"I don't think we'll be allowed to go back in there without protection wear even if we wanted to," JJ reassured her colleague and tried not to think about the mould and spores they had inhaled. Ugh. It was supposed to just be a routine check. Well, this job was full of surprises. Most of them unpleasant.

"I'm calling Hotch," Blake said.

"Yeah, I'll get the local cops to seal off this building. I can't believe they didn't think about it themselves. I've never been at a place where the local police is so sloppy."

"Well, they clearly don't want us here," Blake stated while she took out her cell phone. Given that the handprints were always found at the place where the body was dumped, everybody had just assumed there were no previously unknown victims…

 _Assume_. If the English language had _one_ really ugly word with a completely useless meaning, that was it.

When Hotch picked up, Blake gave him a brief resume of what they had found, taking great care to sound professional. But her eyes kept wandering towards the house and the windows that seemed to glare back at her with ill-willing glee. She felt like she had insects crawling all over her skin. There was something very wrong with this place ,and she didn't want to go back in there even if the field office put her into a spaceman suit.

 _That place is evil,_ she thought. It was a thought very unlike her; she didn't think in terms of good and evil, and even if she did, places and things could not possibly be labelled as evil. Actions could be, people could be, but not places.

Except possibly for this one.


	2. Chapter 2

JJ was annoyed. She was just going to find Alex and then they would get the hell out of this freaky place. Hotch could send someone else from the team to go back later; maybe one look at Morgan flexing his muscles would make these local deputies show at least some respect. When she had asked them why they hadn't sealed the property off with police tape despite knowing it belonged to a serial killer who had been gone for the past two weeks, they had shrugged.

"Nobody ever goes near that place anyway," the sheriff had said. "It's haunted."

"Haunted?" she said.

"Yes ma'am. You never should have gone in there; it's a miracle you made it back out at all." He sounded earnest enough, but come on…!

"A house that, what, eats people?" she mocked. "Really? Even if it belongs to a serial killer, that doesn't make the _house_ evil. It's _just a house_!"

"What did your colleague see? We heard her scream and run out."

"Welll, I can tell you what she didn't see; ghosts."

"Who said anything about ghosts?" he wanted to know. "I never did. That house is a mindtrap, you know what I mean?"

"Insects in the walls are hardly paranormal activity, just put up that tape," JJ sighed and briskly walked away, half expecting him to laugh at the fact that a seasoned FBI agent had screamed over a bunch of insects, but he didn't laugh at all.

Mindtrap, huh? Sure it was possible to get your mind tangled when you tried to wrap your head around what possessed people to commit such hideous crimes, and even enjoy them, but…

JJ had barely noticed that she had started walking in the direction of the house again, and she was surprised to find herself standing on the front porch. But at the same time, what harm could there be in a second look? Just a peek through the door. Make sure none of them had actually knocked something over in their hurry to get out, perhaps.

Those were silly ideas and part of her recognised them as such, but the greater part of her brushed it off as unimportant. When JJ was in high school she had tried smoking weed. She had enjoyed it to an extent that terrified her; it seemed she couldn't think of anything else but when she would be able to have another smoke. It had become a fixation, an addiction, and she had cut it off as soon as she had realised it. She was not willing to go there, and nothing that felt so good and yet came with such needs could possibly be good for you. She hadn't thought about it in many years, but that was precisely what this felt like. A craving so desperate it was bordering on physical need.

 _One peek, and then I'll go find Alex and we'll leave_ , she promised herself just the way someone with a severe addiction would promise themselves "just one more hit", "just one more drink", "just one more cigarette", "just one more candy bar"…

It was unexplainable how you could know so well that something would come with nothing good, and still yearn to do it. But oh, the very moment when your resolve breaks and you give in to whatever need it is you have… it feels just _divine_.

JJ went inside.

* * *

Blake saw out of the corner of her eye how the door closed behind JJ, and immediately felt a bad feeling starting to grow somewhere around her solar plexus. It was so intense she decided to catch up with the younger woman; cuff her and physically drag her out of that bug-infested place if necessary.

"Hey lady, don't go in there!"

Blake turned around and saw a boy, about eleven years old or so, juggling a baseball from one hand to the other. She changed the direction of her steps and walked up to him.

"What do you mean, why shouldn't I go in there?"

"Nobody who's ever gone in for very long comes back out again."

Oh, she could smell an urban legend all the way from where she was standing, and she was anxious to get JJ back out… but if the house wasn't dangerous, then why would she feel like it was such a hurry to get JJ out of there? It didn't make any sense, JJ could take care of herself.

"Oh, really? No one?"

"But you two, and your friend is already back inside. She won't come out. That house is haunted."

"How do you know that if nobody ever comes out?"

She kept glancing over her shoulder and the boy noticed. "It's pulling you in, isn't it?

"Don't answer a question with a question," she said, but she was barely aware that she spoke at all. She felt like she was in that unsettling state between a dream and waking up.

"You can't let it get to you. Hey. I'm Brandon. What's your name?"

It was funny, but for a moment she couldn't remember her own name. She looked at him, bewildered and a little bit frightened, and then it came back to her as if she had never lost it.

"It's Alex. I'm Alex."

"Have you seen The Shining?"

"I'm surprised _you_ have, aren't you a little bit too young for…" she began, but he waved it off. He was even smiling a little.

"Don't answer a question with a question, Alex." He grew serious. "That house is like that Overlook hotel. It's _evil_. Stay away from it."

"I have to go and get my friend out," she said and turned around. The relief in eventually turning back and give in to that pulling force was immense. A quote tried to push through to her mind;

 _Dead fish float with the tide, live ones swim against it_

But it was gone before she could acknowledge it properly.

She had been sweating a little, the outside air was hot and humid, but the closer she got to the house, the cooler the air seemed to get. It wasn't even a metaphor for fear; she was freezing enough to shiver by the time she touched the doorknob.

Every instinct in her screamed at her to turn around and run; it was as if a thousand internal alarms went off at once. But that was ridiculous, and even if it wasn't, she couldn't leave JJ behind.

As she yanked the door open - it screeched with its rusty voice as if in pain - the kid whose name had already escaped her, the way things escape you in a dream, called out. His voice penetrated the eerie and somehow thick atmosphere that surrounded the house, but what he said was flat out weird.

"You! Are! Alex!"

 _Of course I am, who else would I be?_ , she thought, annoyed, and went inside.

* * *

 **A/N**

Yaaaay, there _was_ more! I'm telling you guys, this place is creepy for reasons far worse than a few bugs, which our ladies will unfortunately soon find out.

Thank you very much for your reviews and your interest! :D


	3. Chapter 3

One of the police officers caught glimpse of a plastic evidence bag on the ragged lawn. He walked up to it, crouched down and took it. Turned it over to look at the content.

"What the hell…?"

There was a sheet of paper and an envelope in it. Both were clean and empty. He wondered what about those items were important enough to render them a place in the evidence bag, but he couldn't ask, as the two agents, Jareau and Blake, were nowhere to be found. He stood up and looked in the direction of the house.

 _Oh God, it lured them back in._

He did not look forward to explaining to their boss that the two FBI agents would not come back out. And he definitely didn't want to send anyone in after them if they were still alive. If they were, they would have gone insane. Unlike the boy who had spoken to Alex earlier, deputy Lindstrom knew there had been people coming back out. But those who had, had either committed suicide or been admitted to closed psychiatric wards. The fact that these two had made it out once without losing their mind - although he _had_ wondered about the brunette - only seemed to frighten him further. If you win one round of Russian Roulette, why the hell would you even consider playing again?

* * *

It wasn't until the door had closed behind her - and with a loud bang that it didn't seem to be able to produce, even - that JJ realised that she had forgotten to bring her flashlight. Of course, forgotten wasn't the right word given that she hadn't actually planned on going back in to begin with, but…

Something rushed past her and she barely managed to bite back a scream. While she respected Alex's phobia, she didn't want to come screaming and running out the door like she had. If nothing else, it would certainly not look good in front of the local police. Whatever had just brushed against her foot was surely just a rat anyway. Unpleasant, but not much of a threat. She took a deep breath and coughed out the air, suddenly reminded of its old stench and swirling dust.

 _Why the hell did I go back in at all?_ she asked herself, feeling honestly confused. But as she made a move to turn around, it felt like invisible strings pulled at her, while equally invisible hands pushed her. She found that she couldn't move in the direction of the door; she could only move forward, further into the house. Terror gripped her heart, but it seemed she couldn't stop.

Something that felt like dusty fingers trailed over her neck and then withdrew. She gasped and looked around, but there was nothing there.

 _Spiderwebs_ , she told herself. _It's just spiderwebs, stop making things up._

A low sound began to resonate in the air around her. It took several seconds before she could identify it. It was laughter. A laughter that did not sound human at all. JJ stepped forward, pushing her way through the piles of junk, although every last fibre of her being screamed at her to turn around and get out of there.

* * *

The wallpaper was hideous. Not only because it concealed bugs, but also because of its faded pattern of grinning green elves. Who in their right mind would… oh, of course. Most serial killers weren't in their right mind.

 _And why am I staring at the wallpaper?_ Alex wondered, mentally shaking herself awake. It was surprisingly difficult; much harder than returning to reality from a vivid daydream. _I was just going in to get JJ_ _…_ _and where is JJ?_

She opened her mouth to call out for her, but as soon as she had, she realised something was wrong.

 _Was that an echo? That_ _'_ _s insane. This place is too small and too crowded to support echoes._

She called out again, and this time she was certain she heard something… but it wasn't an echo of her own voice. It was someone else's voice. Alex frowned.

 _JJ, this is not funny. But you won't scare me._

She searched her pockets for her cell phone. If she called up JJ's phone she would hear precisely where the younger woman was, and end her little game. Though when she thought about it, it was very unusual, very uncharacteristic. JJ wasn't exactly known for playing pranks on people, nor would she do something sadistic like luring anyone back into a situation that scared them. It just wasn't like her.

Alex couldn't find her cell phone. It was ironic; she still carried a lighter even though she had quit smoking years ago, but she could obviously forget something much more important, such as the damn phone.

She glanced at the wallpaper again.

 _It's really ugly._

Just as she was about to move on, one of the elves parading across the wall winked at her. She looked away, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

 _I did not see that._

A voice spoke inside her head.

 _You will see much more than that. You will see things to the point where you'd rather claw your own eyes out than see any more._

The wallpaper began to crack open. Terrified of what she would see if she kept looking at it, Alex dropped the flashlight and turned on her heels and fled towards the door.

But where there had been a door, there was now just another wall. She took a step backwards, breathing heavily as she tried to get herself under control. When she lowered her gaze she noticed that the floor seemed to be… moving. No, not moving. _Crawling_. It was crawling with insects. Everything from silverfish to centipedes to cockroaches. She shook her head as white flashes of panic threatened to overthrow what little self-control she still possessed. The presence, whose very existence became less and less ridiculous with each passing moment, seemed pleased. Alex didn't know how she could sense that, but she could. And suddenly she felt furious.

 _No! I came to get JJ out and I will!_

The presence seemed taken aback, as if it wasn't used to anyone being determined, and when Alex blinked, the insects were gone. Just like that. She experienced a brief moment of relief, of her usual confidence returning… and then a hand touched the back of her neck, almost affectionately, before the eerie, non-human voice inside her mind spoke again.

 _You will be a delight to break._

"I don't break," Alex muttered under her breath.

 _Everybody has a breaking point._

She knew that it was true. But she wasn't about to leave JJ alone in here with this _thing_ , this bodiless monster. She pursed her lips into a thin line, picked up her flashlight, and moved on, walking deeper into this place that stunk of pure evil.

* * *

 **A/N**

Oh my GOD I'm awfully rusty at writing this genre! _Please_ don't throw rotten tomatoes on me… (throw fresh ones instead ^^ ). Well, I started it so I must finish it, but wow, I think I should probably stick to femslash/romance from now on, haha!


	4. Chapter 4

JJ could have sworn she heard Alex's voice call out her name, somewhere about a thousand miles away, and for a moment she snapped back to reality. She was just about to call back, when something nipped at her calf. Before she knew it, that something no longer limited itself to nipping; it bit her. Hard. A wild, burning pain spread up her leg and she kicked to get whatever caused this pain to loosen its jaws, but it only bit down harder. She could feel a stream of hot blood streaming down her leg, pooling in her shoe.

As she stared down at her attacker, she felt sick to her stomach. It was a rat - possibly the meanest-looking rat she had ever seen in her life - and it was the size of a big and well-fed cat. Its yellow teeth, stained with her blood, seemed very, very large.

"God damn it!" JJ shouted and pulled out her gun, but before she could take aim, the nasty creature jumped up on her arm and took another bite out of the sensitive, thin skin on the inside of her elbow.

"Ow! You son of a b…" she only got that far before another set of sharp teeth sunk deep into the flesh just below her waist. She screamed, this time with no words. She tried to pull loose, but for each rat she tore loose from her body and tossed into the dark corners, another jumped her.

 _My God_ , she thought, _they're going to eat me alive_.

She took a few staggering steps back the way she had come, trying to escape the assault, when suddenly what felt like strong (yet invisible) hands grabbed her shoulders and threw her against a heap of cardboard boxes and newspapers. She landed on her back and hit her head on something hard. Upon her body's impact on the long forgotten junk, a huge greyish cloud of dust and plaster exploded into the air. She coughed and tried to catch her breath, staring up at the ceiling. Her head was spinning.

"Get up," she ordered herself, but she was unable to carry out the command. The low sound of unpleasant laughter began to fill her entire head, and JJ couldn't fight it anymore.

She passed out.

And with no support from her conscious mind; her thoughts, the entity here could no longer fuel the image of the rats. One by one, even as they still approached the sprawled-out blonde, the rats blinked out of existence.

* * *

Something tickled her arm. Alex shuddered and brushed her free hand against the place, refusing to look at it. But the sensation only grew more intense. When she reluctantly looked down she nearly threw up at the sight. It would have been bad enough to have insects crawling _on_ her skin, but these were… _under_ it. She groped at the things crawling and moving inside her arm, panicking as they moved upward. She was vaguely aware that she was going into hysterics, but she didn't care. She began clawing at her arm with her nails, scratching open her skin to the point where blood mixed with tiny black beetles gushed out of her.

"It's not real, it's not real, it's just an image for heaven's sake," she tried to convince herself and shut her eyes to push the image away.

When she opened her eyes again, her arm was unscathed. Shivering uncontrollably, of course, but that was okay. She was shivering all over. She felt light-headed and swayed on her heels for a moment, feeling as though she might pass out. She didn't, but as she looked around, she realised that she had no idea where she was… why she was there… or even _who_ she was. It was stupid. Nobody can just forget their own identity like that, but…

But she really had no idea who she was. It was like that feeling in the depths of a dream, when you have no idea how you got here, who you are or what has happened to you before. You have no past and no future, you are stuck in an eternal _now_.

Alex searched for her ID to prove her identity to herself, but when she looked at it, the name was erased and the photo showed only a silhouette that could have belonged to thousands of women. Now she was scared for real. Then a voice spoke inside her mind, and this wasn't the ensnaring, smug voice that belonged to whatever existence residing in this house; this was the memory of a voice she had heard not long ago. The voice of a boy.

 _You are Alex._

"I'm Alex," she murmured, and as if her voice broke some kind of spell, everything came back to her in a flash. "I'm Alex Blake, FBI, and I'm only in here to find JJ, my colleague." She paused and decided to rectify herself. "My _friend_."

The tight grip around her mind seemed to slacken a little at that word. Whatever thing used this house for a disguise or home, it clearly did not cheer on human relationships.

"Alex!" a weak voice called out in the gloom and Alex took a deep, sobbing breath of relief.

"I'm here, JJ! I'm coming!"

* * *

JJ was sprawled out on a heap of cartons, as if she had been thrown. Alex rushed to her side and helped her up, but after taking a couple of steps JJ collapsed on the floorboards. Alex sat down next to her, suddenly exhausted to her very core.

"Are you injured?"

"It's inside my head," JJ whimpered and pressed her hands against her closed eyes. "It's showing me these horrible images… oh God, make it stop…"

 _You will have to claw your own eyes out to make it stop._

Alex grabbed JJ's wrists and forced her hands down. She pinned them firmly onto her own lap. "Fight it, JJ. It _can_ be fought. Those images are not real, they can't harm you if you don't let them. I'm right here, JJ. I'm not leaving you."

JJ cried out with fear, struggle and possibly even pain, and huddled up close to the other woman as if searching for protection. The only protection Alex could provide was keeping JJ from hurting herself. Eventually, the mental struggle became too much for JJ and she lost consciousness again.

Alex put her arms around the younger woman and held her close. If they were going to die, at least they were going to die together.

* * *

 **A/N**

Yup. One more chapter to go. Sadly. I think I'm finally finding my way with this story, but, well. ^^

Thank you for reading, and please review if you like. :D


	5. Chapter 5

"It's interesting," Alex said out loud. She was pretty certain this thing could read her mind, and so talking wasn't really necessary, but she felt more comfortable when she could hear her own voice. It was hoarse from screaming and inhaling the stale air for so long - how long? Hours? Days? Years? Time didn't seem to matter in here - but it was still her own voice.

"You know everything that scares us…" she paused and coughed breathlessly, but then the cough morphed into a surprisingly amused chuckle. "… but there must be something that scares you as well. And I think I know what."

 _I fear nothing._

JJ's eyelids fluttered and she opened her eyes, staring up at Alex.

"Where are we?"

" _Literally_ the creepiest house in the world," Alex replied and shook her head. "Do you think you can stand up?"

"Yeah," JJ replied after a brief pause when she flexed her tender muscles and decided that although everything hurt, nothing was broken.

"Good. We're getting out of here."

 _You are not going anywhere._

"Yes, we are," Alex replied and helped JJ up in a standing position. She put one arm around the younger woman's waist and began to slowly drag her with her in a direction she hoped lead to the exit. JJ was bleeding in numerous places and she had a bump on her head, but she was awake and seemed as aware as she did before they went inside.

 _There are no ways out of here._

"There is always a way out, all you have to do is find it," Alex stated in a low but confident voice.

She could feel the presence, the mind monster, search through her thoughts furiously, trying to find out about her intentions before it was too late. It wasn't exactly painful, but it was _very_ unpleasant. She gritted her teeth and pressed on, while steadying JJ with one hand and frantically searching her pockets with the other. Eventually her fingers closed around the object she was looking for, and she pulled it out. She was unaware that a smile of triumph was playing on her lips.

"Whatever you are, you exist in a decaying wooden house full of old papers and dust. At least I know what _should_ scare you," she said as she switched on the cigarette lighter. A bright flame cut through the murk like a blade. She set it to a heap of newspaper that they just passed, and the crumpled, dry papers immediately caught fire.

While she knew setting fire to a place you were trapped in wasn't exactly a smart idea, she could think of nothing else. And it turned out to be a good decision. The house seemed to shrink away from the two women as the presence that resided in here lost its hold over them. Suddenly they could see the front door, less than ten feet away. They exchanged quick, disbelieving glances and moved on through the rapidly thickening smoke. Alex reached for the doorknob and yanked the door open - almost falling over in the process as she had expected at least some resistance - and pushed JJ out. When she tried to follow suit, she could feel the creature inside throw itself after her, trying to grab hold of her mind once more, but it was weakened, distracted by the fire, and she pulled loose with ease.

"I told you, I don't break," Alex spat before stepping outside, into the humid late-July air, and slammed the door shut behind her. She took a few steps onto the lawn before she collapsed next to JJ, who was on her stomach with her forehead pressed to the cool grass.

"We need to call the fire-fighters," JJ muttered into the greenery.

"To hell with it, let it burn down."

JJ rolled over to the side and looked carefully at her colleague and friend. From the spiderwebs in Alex's usually well-groomed hair to the dust on her clothes, the sweat-mixed dirt that smeared her face like war paint, the streak of soot on the side of her hand... JJ began to laugh. While it was 90 % from relief, the rest was pure amusement. Classy, composed Alex Blake _never_ looked this crappy. At least not in public.

"What's so funny?"

"You look like shit, Alex."

Alex began laughing as well.

"You know JJ, you don't exactly look like a million bucks either," Alex retorted and rolled over on her back, staring up at the clear blue sky. She had never been so grateful to see the sky before. The air, no matter how humid it was, tasted heavenly. The sweet scent of grass was a lovely change from the dry, dead smell of dust and decay. She could hear the sounds of a distant thunderstorm mixing with the crackling sound when the fire ate through the house. And she could hear the footsteps as the local police came running towards them, but for a few more seconds, she just wanted to bask in the knowledge that they had survived, and they had gotten out safely.

JJ reached out a hand and squeezed her shoulder.

"Who knew your bad habit would end up saving our lives?"

Alex chuckled and glanced at the lighter she still clutched in one hand.

"Yeah, who knew?"

"Thank you for coming in after me."

"You know, I may be a lot of things, but I am not someone who leaves a friend behind." She paused and considered. "However, _you_ get to tell Hotch what the hell happened."

JJ groaned as she began tackling the difficult task of sitting upright.

"You call _that_ not leaving a friend behind, huh?"

Alex smiled sweetly and said nothing. JJ grinned and shook her head.

Behind them came a roaring sound as the burning roof fell in. Nobody was going to get caught in that supernatural version of a Venus flytrap again. At least they had succeeded in that much.

* * *

 **Epilogue**

When the afternoon turned into evening and JJ and Alex had been examined by a doctor, given their statement about the things that occurred in that house, and taken long, hot showers, they went out for something to eat. Neither wanted to catch up with the rest of the team just yet; this day had just been too weird.

After finishing their meals, they ordered in a beer each. None of them spoke until they had finished about half of it. There were just too many things to think about, and too little rhyme and reason to the whole thing. Eventually, JJ put her glass down and sought Alex's eyes.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"Did… did that really happen? I mean, in there."

Alex bit her lip and anxiously tapped her fingers on her thigh before answering.

"To be completely honest, I'm not sure. I suppose it could have been… I don't know…"

"Folie á deux?" JJ suggested. Alex nodded, but didn't seem convinced.

"It's possible, I suppose. Or some kind of fungus giving off hallucinogenic spores that we inhaled. Who knows, _anything_ could have grown in that environment."

She spoke slowly, as if expecting to be cut off any moment - almost _wishing_ she'd be, in fact. JJ gave her a reluctant look.

"You don't believe that, do you?"

Alex shook her head. "No, I don't. What do you think?"

"I don't know what to think… but it sure _seemed_ real."

"Mm."

They fell silent for a while and focused on their drinks. JJ happened to glance across the table and see some kind of insect crawl onto Alex's arm.

"Alex," she began, pointing to the invader of her friend's personal space. The older woman looked down at her arm and barely raised an eyebrow before squashing the bug with one hand. As she wiped the mess off with her napkin she commented in a calm voice;

"If this whole story taught me anything, it's that I'd rather deal with a bug or two, than an invisible maniac that can hack into my mind with less effort than Garcia hacks into an average online network."

JJ laughed and nodded. She couldn't agree more.

* * *

 **A/N**

So, eventually I managed to finish the editing of the last part. It wasn't until the last chapters that this story got its wings, which is funny since this was my comfy genre back in the day. Oh well.

And yeah, you get to choose what to believe happened. Was it "madness for two", a cabin fever kind of reaction that had nothing to do with a supernatural being? Or was it a hallucinogenic fungus or the likes? Or did it really happen?

Like so many other things in life, we can't be entirely sure… though I know what I think. ^^

Reviews are welcome. I hope you liked it!


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